A California man has shared shocking photos that show the effect of coronavirus on his body. Mike Schultz lost over 20 kgs during his six week stay at the hospital as he battled the disease. Last week, the 43-year-old nurse from San Francisco shared two photos with his 30,000 Instagram followers – one that was taken at the hospital and the other about a month before he fell sick.

He said it exhausted him to stand up at the hospital to click the photograph, but he shared the transformation pics on social media to warn others that the disease could happen to anyone. Before he contracted coronavirus, Mr Schultz weighed 190 pounds or 86 kgs. His weight dropped to around 63 kgs as he battled the disease.

“I wanted to show it can happen to anyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, have pre-existing conditions or not. It can affect you,” Mr Schultz told BuzzFeed News.

“I wanted to show everyone how badly being sedated for 6 weeks on a ventilator or intubated can be,” he wrote while sharing the body transformation photos. “Amongst other things, covid19 reduced my lung capacity with pneumonia.”

Mr Schultz worked out six or seven times a week and had no underlying health conditions. He contracted coronavirus in March after attending a party on Miami beach that has been linked to several COVID cases. This happened before any social distancing restrictions were in place.

After being admitted on March 16, he was treated for pneumonia and had acute respiratory distress syndrome and put on ventilator. It took four and a half weeks for him to start breathing on his own again.

“I didn’t even recognize myself,” Mr Schultz told CNN of his shocking transformation. “I pretty much cried when I looked in the mirror.”

He is now on the road to recovery and planning to get his body back “in healthier ways this time”.